Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Intellectual Property

v3.10.0.1
Intellectual Property
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2018
Notes to Financial Statements  
Note 6 - Intellectual Property

On January 15, 2009, the Company entered into an "Exclusive Patent and Know-How License Agreement Including Transfer of Ownership" (the “License Agreement”) with the Energy and Environmental Research Center Foundation, a non-profit entity (“EERCF”). Under the terms of the License Agreement, the Company had been granted an exclusive license by EERCF with respect to certain patented technology to develop, make, have made, use, sell, offer to sell, lease, and import the technology in any coal-fired combustion systems (power plant) worldwide and to develop and perform the technology in any coal-fired power plant in the world. Amendments No. 4 and No. 5 to the License Agreement were made effective as of December 16, 2013 and August 14, 2014, respectively, expanding the number of patents covered, eliminated certain contract provisions and compliance issues and restructured the fee payments and buyout provisions while granting EERCF equity in the Company. The License Agreement applied to various domestic and foreign patents and patent applications which has formed the basis of the Company’s mercury control technology.

 

Under the terms of the License Agreement, the Company paid EERCF $100,000 in 2009 for the license to use the patents and at the option of the Company can pay $2,500,000 and issue 925,000 shares of common stock for the assignment of the patents or pay the greater of the license maintenance fees or royalties on product sales for continued use of the patents (see below). The license maintenance fees are $25,000 due monthly beginning in January 1, 2014 and continuing each month thereafter. The running royalties are $100 per one megawatt of electronic nameplate capacity and $100 per three megawatt per hour for the application to thermal systems to which licensed products or licensed processes are sold by the Company, associate and sublicensees. Running royalties are payable by the Company within 30 days after the end of each calendar year to the licensor and may be credited against license maintenance fees paid. Running EERCF royalties were eliminated as of December 31, 2017.

   

On April 24, 2017, the Company closed on the acquisition from EERCF of all patent rights, including all patents and patents pending, domestic and foreign, relating to the foregoing technology. A total of 42 domestic and foreign patents and patent applications were included in the acquisition. In accordance with the terms of the License Agreement, the patent rights were acquired for the purchase price of (i) $2,500,000 in cash, and (ii) 925,000 shares of common stock of which 628,998 shares were issued to EERCF and 296,002 were issued to the inventors who had been designated by EERCF. As a result of the acquisition of the patent rights, no additional monthly license maintenance fees and annual running royalties shall be due and owing to the EERCF following closing which fees and royalties have now been eliminated.

 

The Company was required to pay EERCF 35% of all sublicense income received by the Company, excluding royalties on sales by sublicensees. Sublicense income is payable by the Company within 30 day after the end of each calendar year to the licensor. On April 24, 2017, this requirement ended upon the Company’s payment for the assignment and acquisition of the patent rights. There was no sublicense income for the six month period ended June 30, 2018 or the year ended December 31, 2017, respectively.

 

License and patent costs capitalized as of June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017 are as follows:

 

    June 30,     December 31,  
    2018     2017  
             
Patents   $ 3,068,995     $ 3,068,995  
Less: Accumulated Amortization     (234,733 )     (134,133 )
License, Net   $ 2,834,262     $ 2,934,862  

 

The Company is currently amortizing its patents over their estimated useful life of 15 years. Amortization expense for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 was $100,602 and $33,534, respectively. Amortization expense for the quarters ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 was $50,300 and $35,003, respectively. Estimated annual amortization for each of the next five years is approximately $201,200.